Major penalties in the car service market: 25 car services and two insurers fined for fixing labor and spare parts rates

The Competition Council announced on Monday that it has fined 27 companies (25 car services and two insurance companies) with fines of over 14.73 million lei (approximately 2.9 million euros) for anti-competitive agreements in order to fix labor rates, the price of spare parts and other commercial conditions. All of the sanctioned companies have admitted their wrongdoing and have therefore benefited from reduced sanctions.

25 of the sanctioned companies are or were members of the authorized service network of Auto Italia Impex SRL in Romania and carry out, among other things, maintenance and repair activities of motor vehicles.

“The competition authority found, following an investigation, that they coordinated their commercial behavior in order to fix and/or standardize the labor rates, the price of spare parts, as well as other commercial conditions, in the relationship with certain insurance companies. In this way, they eliminated competition between them”, the authority's statement says.

This understanding was strengthened by the involvement of the insurance companies Gothaer Asigurări-Reasigurări SA (currently Allianz-Țiriac Unit Asigurări SA) and Uniqa Asigurări SA who, through their actions, supported the coordination of the repairers' behavior.

As a result, the two companies were fined 6.7 million lei, the rest of the amount representing the fines applied to car repairers who took part in the deal.

The investigation was triggered by a leniency application submitted by one of the companies, which was granted immunity from fines for cooperating with the competition authority under the leniency programme.

The leniency policy is a tool through which the Competition Council can apply a favorable treatment to companies involved in a cartel agreement and that cooperate with the competition authority in order to discover and sanction these anti-competitive practices.

All 27 sanctioned companies admitted their wrongdoing and therefore benefited from reduced sanctions.

The decisions of the Competition Council are enforceable, and the fines applied represent revenues to the state budget. The National Fiscal Administration Agency (ANAF) implements the sanctioning decision of the competition authority and executes the fines.

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